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| J.M.W. Turner, the First Impressionist |
| The Next Windows Operating System |
| Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility |
| Donate Your Old Mac to a School |
| Another Eleemosynary Site (and Learn a New Word While You're at It) |
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BREAKING SURF
It's getting harder and harder to dismiss the notion that the recording industry is run by paranoid control freaks who tear up and stamp on all those customer-driven company manifestos that circulate from time to time. In the latest demonstration of the industry's uncanny ability to never miss a chance to miss a chance, some companies are deploying or threatening to deploy snooping software against people sharing files through the Internet. And you might be horrified to discover what such software can find out about who you are and what you're doing through peer-to-peer networking. Salon has a deliciously critical article, with some rude comments from Eben Moglen, professor of law and legal history at Columbia University. We're also going to send you scurrying to a short take on the issue from the Register. When an industry unleashes the hounds of snooping and intimidation on a whole generation of music fans, something's seriously amiss. Instead of trying to surf on this thing, the industry is fighting a wasteful war that's hardening attitudes and sucking all of us into an intellectual property quagmire that may eventually threaten the whole business.Salon: http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/03/27/media_tracker/index.html
Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/17805.html
Why Is It So Hard to Copy-Protect a Music CD?
"Charley Pride: A Tribute to Jim Reeves" is set to become the first secure, impossible-to-copy CD. At least for a little while. Record companies had been searching for the Holy Grail of CDs - impossible to copy but playable on all CD players - even before Napster let you trade near-perfect-quality copies of songs for free. But the business end of protecting copyrighted material on CDs is substantially more complicated than the average consumer thinks: multiple standards and playback schemes for CD and CD-ROM players, different recording methods, and legions of eager hackers all make for a nearly impossible job. MSNBC has a good, not technologically daunting article about yet another company who thinks it has come up with unbreakable encryption and the challenges behind doing so.http://www.msnbc.com/news/550565.asp
China Moves to Stifle Music Pirates
China continues major crackdowns on copyright infringement by warning sites that allow music trading to begin paying royalties or face legal action. Though China is a hotbed of pirated material from CDs to software and consumer goods, few people have the technology to exploit downloadable music. Still, China is attempting to make good on promises it made to the World Trade Organization to curb trafficking in pirated material.http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-5262396.html
Two years ago, a federal jury in Portland, Ore. found in favor of Planned Parenthood and four doctors who had sued anti-abortionists for publishing wanted posters with the names, pictures, and addresses of doctors who performed abortions. One of those targeted was Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was murdered shortly thereafter. (As an aside, the chief suspect in this killing and in attacks on three Canadian doctors, James Charles Kopp, was recently arrested in Paris after an extensive FBI manhunt). A three-judge panel of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has now overturned the original ruling. The judges ruled that although the doctors definitely felt threatened, the anti-abortionist Web site and other publicity didn't actually threaten violence or explicitly encourage others to do so. The ruling is less important to the specific abortion debate than to society at large. ABC News and Wired have the details and Caselaw the judgment.
ABC: http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/abortionappeal010328.html
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42708,00.html
FindLaw: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=9th&navby=case&no=9935320
Beavering away to satisfy fussy foreign folk who don't like an English-only domain name system, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) thought it had the problem licked. Celebrations around the water cooler were cut short, however, when word reached them that Walid R. Tout had cleverly anticipated the development and was waving around his brand new US patent. Walid's system transforms non-English domain name characters into the Unicode language standard then converts that into US ASCII for transmission over the Internet - boiled down, that means no changes are needed to existing domain name servers and protocols. Now the IETF members are sulking and threatening to scupper the whole project unless Walid licenses them for free. It seems these technological standards prissies are too purist to sully their hands with anything as downright nasty as entrepreneurial hustle. Meanwhile, Walid - um, touts his system at the Walid Inc. Web site. Network World Fusion has details and links to the patent and the Walid Web site.
http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2001/0326patent.html
It's done with software, so why not hardware, Jamil Khatib wondered. Can open-source design offer the same potential advantages - lower cost, proven designs, and shorter development time - to hardware? Jamil and others at OpenCores, a key open-source hardware group, think so and aim to develop a library of free hardware designs for processors, memory controllers, peripherals, motherboards and other standard components, eliminating the need for redundant design work by manufacturers. The biggest effort right now is focusing on the development of an OpenRISC processor with system-on-a-chip capabilities. This project illustrates one of the big attractions of open-source systems tasks: the chance to work on technically interesting projects with peers from anywhere in the world and freedom from corporate goals and priorities. Open-source hardware movements will not likely threaten big name companies with proprietary designs any time soon, but the trend is a positive development. ZDNet brings us the details and we also suggest you visit the OpenCores Web site to read their admirable mission statement and see what they're up to.
ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5080214,00.html
OpenCores: http://www.opencores.org/
AOL Instant Messenger vs. the Clones
Historically, AOL has tried to prevent other software from communicating on its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network. Its latest tactic takes advantage of a clever bit of code that prevents numerous open-source AIM clones from working. The AIM programmers have altered the way their servers operate recently. The servers require the client software to send an encrypted checksum of a portion of the real AIM program code. If the checksum is bad, the client is dropped. This poses a serious problem to many AIM client clones and prevents them from connecting to the AIM network. This Web page has the technical details of how it all cleverly works.http://gaim.sourceforge.net/oscar.shtml
ARIS: Attack Registry and Intelligence Service
SecurityFocus has just unveiled a new Web site to help gather collective intelligence on the nature and quantity of network attacks. ARIS lets sysadmins submit suspicious network traffic and intrusion attempts anonymously. The data can then be analyzed, free of charge, and the results fed back to the sysadmin. SecurityFocus also anonymizes and aggregates the data and sells it as a commercial offering that summarizes hacking activity around the Net. The sysadmin community is actively using the site, with 361,866 incidents reported over the last seven days.http://aris.securityfocus.com/
A good article on the O'Reilly OpenP2P Web site addresses what writer Kelly Truelove calls "the transient web". He argues that Gnutella file-trading hosts are in effect transient Web hosts. With this metaphor, the article offers a fairly new perspective on how to view the Gnutella network. The piece addresses such issues as the public nature of search queries, query anonymity vs. the non-anonymity of content transfer, Gnutella viruses, and the security problems inherent in the architecture. The article touches on many post-static Web network issues, both philosophical and architectural.
http://openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/03/22/truelove.html
Win/Linux Cross-Platform Virus
This genuine virus has been designed to infect both Windows and Linux binaries. Fortunately, it's rather harmless, difficult to propagate, and void of any malicious payload. Mostly, it seems to be a proof of concept. However - as is usual with these things - it undoubtedly won't be long before somebody extends the idea to some nasty variation on this technique or, more likely, creates a tool kit to make such viruses easy to build. Consider it a notable development in the evolution of computer fauna.http://support.avx.com/cgi-bin/command/solution?11=010327-0017&130=0985731825
Microsoft Internet Explorer E-Mail Hacks
Two new Internet Explorer (IE) problems showed up over the last week. The first and probably more serious problem can cause IE to execute a program attached to an e-mail without opening the attachment. This is a serious problem that affects IE 5.01 and IE 5.5. If an attacker sends you an e-mail with a specific bad MIME header, IE will launch the attachment automatically. Fortunately, a patch is available and you should install it immediately. Read the MIME Security advisory for details. Another hole happens when IE 5.x interacts with Microsoft Exchange server. The result could be some serious security problems which expose e-mail and other files to hackers. Sysadmins who run Exchange need to be aware of this.MIME Security: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp
Patch: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/critical/Q290108/default.asp
Exchange: http://www.guninski.com/iemsdaipp.html
ONLINE CULTURE
Mike Daisey worked for Amazon.com for a couple of years, back in the early days. He says his non-disclosure agreement has just expired, and he wants to tell his story. Mostly, he does this through his one-man stage show, "21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com". According to him, the show "mixes tech culture, hero worship, cat litter, Albanian economics, cave bear skeletons, venture capitalists, pornsniffers and the walking dead into a philosophical inquisition yielding the same kinds of questions one might ask after surviving a bender in Vegas." The show is available as a webcast, but Mike's Web site is worth visiting for several other goodies. He has several films in RealVideo and QuickTime format, including the show trailer, a chronicle of an unauthorized visit to Amazon using his expired badge, and video interviews with actual Amazon employees. There's also an archive of his radio and TV interviews. It's all rather amusing, at times rising to deliciously pointed satire and eminently worth a visit.Mike Daisey: http://www.mikedaisey.com/home.html
Webcast: http://www.mikedaisey.com/webcast.html
Popbitch Gets Publicity, Seeks Money
Nothing like the attention of the press to drive up bandwidth costs. Popbitch is a totally over-the-top celebrity gossip site - though that description probably endows it with more dignity then it aspires to. Frankly, it's a delicious cesspool of scurrilous celebrity rumor, much of it only vaguely grounded in sordid reality. Naturally, this makes it a hugely popular site with the post-media pop-culture junkie crowd - you know, kinda like us. Recently the site has been getting numerous mentions in the mainstream media, much like the story in Wired. The attention has overloaded its servers so now Popbitch is seeking donations to upgrade its networking teat. Refreshingly, they don't do ads and promise to use the money only for goo... er, more scurrilous gossip mongering - which, after all, is what we all want more of.Popbitch: http://www.popbitch.com/
Wired: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,42700,00.html
Cash Appeal: http://www.popbitch.com/appeal/server.html
Satire of Ireland's Dotcom Boom
The Celtic Tiger is a phenomenon that some might argue has reached a state of perfect relaxation, snoozing away in its den while the Ireland economy tries to explain its title of "e-commerce hub in Europe". P45.net, which boasts a slogan of "Wasting time at work", created a new site called E-jits.com about the Celtic Tiger and its dotcom boom. Aside from news, jokes, and quips about real-life Internet silliness, the site includes an easy-to-follow, comprehensive online "cut-out-and-keep" guide on how to become an Internet guru. The E-jits.com pages feature a Boss Alert link, which pops up a window visiting a site about technology news. No impact on your productivity whatsoever.http://www.e-jits.com/
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
J.M.W. Turner, the First Impressionist
Joseph Mallord William Turner was one of those geniuses under-appreciated in his own time. While his art received popular recognition and hung in some of the finest galleries in England, contemporary critics viciously attacked his unorthodox use of light, color, and dramatic but sometimes jarring perspective. A London gallery owner once pasted a little cut-out silhouette of a dog in the middle of Turner's painting of the Thames because it "lacked focus". The artist, perhaps sarcastically, proclaimed it a brilliant move. The First Impressionist takes a light overview of J.M.W.'s life, his relationships with various women, and the effect his work ultimately had on a subsequent generation of artists, and is a good introduction to his life. Unfortunately, it's limited graphically to a few thumbnails of his work. For better images of Turner's staggering talent, hop over to the English Romantic Art site.First Impressionist: http://www.ellensplace.net/turner.html
Romantic Art: http://website.lineone.net/~carpenter9/index.htm
BOOKS & E-ZINES
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Items our staff likes and you might too. Click on the image or title to order at a hefty discount from our affiliate Amazon.com, and send a few pennies our way as well.
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Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies
Linux Sendmail Administration
Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel
Black & Whitehttp://www.satirewire.com/index.shtml
Timothy McSweeney's Online Outlet
Before Dave Eggers became the darling of the avant-garde literati, he started a quirky yet entertaining magazine called Timothy McSweeney's. One issue came out as 14 individual folios in a box. The Web site is a lot like that: lots and lots of pages with always well-crafted words and a slight "we're the new Algonquin Round Table and we're bad" attitude. But there's no faulting the writing, with authors of the Neal Pollack, Jonathan Lethem, and Sarah Vowell ilk appearing on the site with work not represented on paper. Does the print edition complement the site, or is the Web site just one long ad for the magazine? Or is the first-class writing and multi-paged design a nefarious promotion for Dave Eggers' own work? Stay tuned.http://www.mcsweeneys.net/
You couldn't ask for a more appropriate moniker. This small weekly 'zine presents the musings of a very small band of mostly late-20ish Georgetown University graduates. Some of the content is humorous, some is insightful, and some is debatable. Head cheese Greg Olear discusses in a recent issue the topic of gun control, for example, toeing a delightfully liberal line - but forage a bit further through the commentaries, and we find Greg adopting a fairly conservative stance during the course of a brief monologue upon the Orwellian effects of PC-speak. Editor Brady Richards does a quietly amusing send-up of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" with his "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Jerks", and it's probable that you've worked or lived (briefly) with somebody who shared some of these traits. There's likely a little something for everyone, here, but it does cause us to wonder a bit about the Georgetown environment.
http://www.largerego.com/
"Underground" Hacking Book at Gutenberg
This great book by Suelette Dreyfus provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the fabled computer underground. Those who took part in the hacking/phreaking scene in the '80s will feel like they're reading their own old dusty diary - or, at least, a polished reflection of what they could have been doing back then. The book, originally published in 1997, was re-released in 2001 in electronic form to the applause of readers new and old. Available in a variety of formats, "Underground" can be downloaded in any file type ranging from plain text to a books-on-tape style audio file for the blind. People tend to order the physical book as well, both to support the author's continued writing efforts and often to make sure their local library has at least one copy.http://www.underground-book.com/
The formal idea behind Marty Beckerman's "Death To All Cheerleaders" is one of criticism - as anyone who read our NSD 5.14 review of his site would guess - and the book's content is not as gruesome as the title. Marty, 17 years old when he put together the book, claims to be describing the "plasticity that seems to be running rampant in adolescent pop culture." With a mixture of cheerleader criticism and other humor columns and fiction, Marty comments on what others would simply accept as standard practice. Not everyone is well suited to read his work, however. Those who react to less-than-politically correct language or opinions won't take to his self-termed "anti-journalism". Others, however, will really enjoy the descriptions of Marty's date with a girl who has never kissed before, or his try-out for the cheerleading squad.
http://www.deathtoallcheerleaders.com/
Have you ever vacationed in a place, only to find out after you were back home that your favorite author had a special affinity for the spot and had visited someplace not a mile from your bed and breakfast? The Literary Traveler aims to put that experience to an end. They investigate authors and the places they loved, writing about visits to such spots as Flannery O'Connor's birthplace or one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite bookstores. There's something special about an author's old haunts; to think that someplace you stand now was once a wellspring of imagination. The site also provides a spectacular list of literary tours for those who are inspired by the articles to make a visit. If nothing else, readers should visit this site before they vacation. No excuse for missing that historical spot now.
http://www.literarytraveler.com/
The Ballyhoo Examiner is more than your average newspaper. It gives you an alternate view on the news of the day - or, more accurately, alternate news of the day. Produced by P45.net (again), the Ballyhoo Examiner lets you catch little jabs and jokes related to particular news topics reportedly taking place in the (mythical) small town of Ballyhoo, which has an unending supply of dramatic events. Movie reviews of films being shown at the Ballyhoo large movieplex are decidedly non-judgmental: "Every once in a while a film comes along. This is such a film." Coverage of the Ballyhoo region is complete: segregation of non-farmers and those of an "agricultural background" is seen as one solution to the problem of "foot and arse" disease. Seemingly level-headed reporting with the grin of true parody between the lines.
http://www.ballyhoo-examiner.com/ballyhoo/
The Guide to Novels You Might Find on a Reading List
Cliff's or Monarch Notes on steroids is a reasonable subtitle for this site for the lazy student. Over 100 of the most popular novels assigned for high school and college reading (along with a few classic works of non-fiction) can be "read" in a few minutes each. Users won't get the feel and glory of the works, but will get the gist, and probably be able to answer basic multiple choice questions about the books. Beware of the top 10 quotes sections (trite), and if you expect to have to write essay question answers, you'll probably have to read the actual books. Still, if the party is more important than the studying, this site will get you through most of your classic lit courses. With a C though, not an A.http://www.novelguide.com/
SURFING SCIENCE
Solar System Live is, by its own definition, "the interactive Orrery of the Web." (Go look up orrery if you have to.) With your input and the computation power of the host computer, you can display the orientations of planets, comets, and asteroids in our solar system, anytime from 4713 BCE to 6,000 years in the future and from any vantage point. Try it with your own latitude and longitude or see the skies as did Tut, Sequoia, or Tupac. To get the most from this site, you need to have some familiarity with astronomy, if not with algorithms. It's easy to surmise, though, that this is the kind of free mathematical tool many astronomers, science writers, and amateur space enthusiasts have wanted for a long time. It's been around since 1995, thanks to John Walker, co-author of AutoCAD, who developed and maintains it. It seems to run smoothly, so little maintenance seems required, although, like the universe, it does look retro. The North American site has a mirror in Europe.http://www.fourmilab.to/solar/
Space-Guy is home to two e-mail newsletters: Space-Guy Weekly, "a free astronomy newsletter for space-buffs who like a little entertainment with their science", and Space-Guy Science, a daily devoted to topics in general science. The former includes a column called "In The Sky This Week", a list of celestial features that might interest your date late at night or when you rise together in the morning, should your stars be so aligned. Alternatively, you could use "Create-a-Chart" to generate a sky chart for your latitude. Space-Guy Science, a weblog, covers an assortment of topics as diverse as memory enhancement, car crashes, and microgravity research through links to a variety of news outlets. Both newsletters are produced by Sean Pratz, who describes himself as a "multi-geek". His curiosity is evident in his excellent Space Directory, a collection of hundreds, maybe thousands, of links. Space out to your heart's content.
http://www.space-guy.com/
Weeeeeit Weeeeeit Burble Click Click Click Click Click Click
Whatever you may think of animal behavior research, it's probably true that some projects do increase our understanding of animals and, in turn, help retard the decimation of species. An organization called Earthtrust started Project Delphis in 1985 to determine how intelligent and self-conscious dolphins actually are. They've even designed a touch-screen computer interface for the dolphins to manipulate (beak-ipulate?), and they're designing programs that interact in sight and sound. You might call it PalmPilots for mammals without palms. Or you might not. The fact that dolphins create rings of bubbles for their babies to play with and recognize themselves on television monitors might not convince you of human-like intelligence, but it certainly will make you think.http://www.earthtrust.org/delphis.html
If you have any interest in the natural world, you gotta visit this. Featuring a mass of resources, including some of the most realistic bird songs and calls you can find on the Net, this site can ensnare any nature-lover. Want to look up something in a field guide? No problem - they have over 4,800 North American plants and animals on file. They feature a search engine for US National parks, complete with visitor ratings and descriptions. Have a question? You can ask an Expert. Start a life-list, if you're into that sort of thing - how easier to maintain it than via the Web? Newsletters, e-cards, the obligatory store - they have it all, and do it about as well as we've seen yet.
http://www.enature.com/
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is using technology to show the rest of the world their passion. They mount video cameras inside nest boxes and await winged lodgers. This year, they're planning to show the nesting behaviors of barn owls, eastern bluebirds, American kestrels, mountain bluebirds, and Carolina chickadees. Our reviewer is watching little owl chicks wake up. It's better than most bird webcam sites because showing multiple nests will extend the site's usefulness throughout the year.
http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/camframe.html
Something Fishy This Way Swims
FishBase aims to be all things ichthyological to all people. Their target audience appears to be anyone vaguely interested in fish, from fishery managers and conservationists to anglers and aquarium owners. It's a massive undertaking; click on Search FishBase to get an idea of exactly how huge this project is. You can search on a common name, like "betta," or search on something as specific as which fish are affected by which treaties and conventions. Philatelists will be interested to see the section of the database devoted to fish stamps.http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm
You Can Never Get Enough Dinosaurs
The kids may love this site. Heck, you may, too. It's all about dinosaurs, and we found the fossil-ized backgrounds appealing. There's an extensive set of links to galleries, museums, newsletters, and more. They also feature a couple of illustrations of a couple of dioramas, including a couple of photographs from each. The meat of the site is the Artist Gallery, which features art and sculpture from a herd of artists that includes such names as Tracy Ford and Mark Halletthttp://www.dinotreker.com/
SOFTWARE
The Next Windows Operating System
Word is, if you're used to Windows 98 or 2000, get ready to do some serious relearning with Windows XP, Microsoft's new OS, formerly code-named Whistler. The XP code and Luna interface are significantly different, and this is Microsoft's first combined consumer-business operating system using the same code base. XP has more multimedia integration, better security, and easier file search and networking functions. It also has some hefty minimum requirements: a 300MHz Pentium II with 128 MB of RAM. XP is just into beta stage but early reports on stability are favorable, as is the overall usability. But at least one columnist gives the nod to Mac OS X.Review: http://www.cnet.com/software/0-429669-8-5194258-1.html
Story: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-5264345.html
Nod: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1272-210-5401483-1.html
Windows Media 8 Encoding Utility
Microsoft has released a tool that lets content producers convert various audio and video media types to its new Windows Media 8 format. The format will be the default when Microsoft releases Windows Media Player 8 in its upcoming XP operating system. The main claim to fame of the new format is that it compresses content into smaller files and, as usual with these things, it also claims to offer better quality pictures and sound.http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/WM8/default.asp
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Donate Your Old Mac to a School
Know a teacher who wants to use a computer or two in their classroom, but either can't get the machine or can't buy the software they need? A database at MacTreasures.com is set up to help match donors of Macintosh hardware and software with the schools that need them. Schools in a number of US states and a few places outside the US have registered to receive a MacTreasures Gift Certificate. If the school you really want to help isn't included, you can send its information to MacTreasures.com to try to get it listed. School computer supply is a topic that drowns in politics, to no one's benefit. The MacTreasures Gift Certificate program is one example where people everywhere can help to improve the flow of resources into the classroom, empowering teachers with new technologies.http://www.mactreasures.com/
Another Eleemosynary Site (and Learn a New Word While You're at It)
Yes, it's another "Search and your money goes to a worthy cause" site. However, World Aid Web was created by United Nations volunteers. Digital volunteers from the US, the UK, India, the Philippines, Spain, Germany, and Singapore came together online to create this not-for-profit portal and search engine. The proceeds reach victims of international disasters. On the day we reviewed it, funds were going to the India earthquake survivors and the Mozambique flood victims. If you already visit click-for-charity sites each day, make this one another stop in your clickpath.http://www.worldaidweb.com/
CORRECTIONS
Comet Way Search Ain't Called Metabot
We called Comet Way's search agent "metabot" last issue ("JAK Powers a Fast Meta Search Engine"), and while Comet Way might like to use that term, another firm has copyrighted it. The correct name for the service is "Comet Search".